3 Fans + 24 + 86 Hours = $10,000 and A Guinness World Record

Three men watched 86 straight hours of 24 and walked away with $10,000 cash and a Guinness World Record.

Three fans of the Kiefer Sutherland program 24 have bested the Guinness World Record for longest period of continuous television watching, and each won $10,000 in the process. Kevin Coon, Farris Hodo, and Victor Lopez managed to best the previously held record of 86 hours by taking in 86 hours, 6 minutes, and 41 seconds worth of nail-biting, terrorism-fighting drama.

The contest was a promotional venture by the Fox network, 24's home when it was still on the air. The complete series DVD is coming out soon, and to promote its release, Fox decided to shut 100 volunteers in what The L.A. Times calls "a makeshift room created in the middle of the Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood." The intrepid viewers settled in with all 8 seasons and see who could last the longest.

The Times continues, "by Friday afternoon, 49 had dropped out of the contest, all of them receiving copies of the complete series DVD (which comes out Dec. 14)." The contest set out to choose one winner, as the organizing Facebook page said the viewings would continue "until there is only one fan remaining. The winning fan will potentially set a new world record for longest TV viewing and receive $10,000 in cold, hard cash." The three winners were not informed that they would each receive the full cash amount until they'd exited the viewing booth.

In an interview shortly after the contest, winner Kevin Coon was either crediting a sponsor or rambling from exhaustion when he attested "it was the Five Hour Energy, dude, it was the, it was the 'hours of energy now, no crash later,' dude. If I didn't have that, I would've passed out."

I've made no secret of my penchant for marathoning television, but this is beyond even my capacity. Well done?